Let’s say you recruit somebody to do a job for you. Because it’s a particularly dirty job, you’re having trouble finding people to fill the position…so… to sweeten the pot, you offer a $20,000 “signing bonus.” That’s in addition, of course, to the monthly salary you plan to pay them. The added incentive helps. People start signing their names on the dotted line to go to work for you.

Then nine or ten years pass by. Suddenly one day you think to yourself, “Hell, what did I offer all those bonuses for? That was dumb. I think I’ll demand my money back!” Of course some of the people you paid the money to are no longer alive, and others sustained catastrophic injuries while working for you, but hey! All’s fair in love…and especially in war!!!

Well, that’s the predicament that a number of US veterans now find themselves in. Back in the days when the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were ramping up big time, military recruiters took to offering sizeable bonuses to get people to join or reenlist. Recently it was reported that the government has begun demanding this money back. Supposedly the bonuses never should have been paid out in the first place, and the decision to do so was a result of oversight, fraud, and mismanagement.

So…long story short, veterans have begun paying back their bonuses, in some cases at the rate of hundreds of dollars per month, while others, those in financial binds who could not afford to meet the additional expenses, are said to be facing wage garnishment. There are reports that veterans are even being charged interest on their outstanding debt.

As you may expect, the story of this shabby treatment of American vets has prompted public outrage, and the latest news, posted Wednesday at NPR, is that the Pentagon is now “suspending” the debt collection program.

Defense Secretary Ashton Carter is calling for “the fair and equitable treatment of our service members and the rapid resolution of these cases,” although the article seems deliberately vague and ambiguous as to whether the bonuses will have to be repaid or whether the debts will be cancelled. The only thing stated clearly is that Carter intends to establish “a streamlined, centralized process that ensures the fair and equitable treatment of our service members and the rapid resolution of these cases.” The “resolution” (whatever that means) of “these cases” is to be completed by no later than July 1, 2017, the Defense Secretary has announced.

“Ultimately, we will provide for a process that puts as little burden as possible on any soldier who received an improper payment through no fault of his or her own,” Carter said. “At the same time, it will respect our important obligation to the taxpayer.”

Right now the focal point of the scandal is California, because that’s where most of the illegal bonuses were paid, although it seems veterans in other states may be facing similar demands. Carter’s statement on the matter addresses only the problem in California.

A petition has been launched demanding Congress take action to rescind the obligation for veterans to repay the bonuses:

In 2006, at the height of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the California National Guard offered bonuses for troops enlisting and re-enlisting. It was part of an aggressive recruitment effort to retain troops during the height of both of those wars.

Now, ten years later, the Pentagon is demanding many of those who received bonuses – almost ten thousand service members – pay them back because they were offered in violation of Federal law.

Right now, veterans are receiving letters from debt collectors, they’re being threatened with tax liens, tax return withholdings and other penalties if they do not repay those bonuses.

These troops, many of them whom went on to serve overseas, were offered these bonuses in good faith and should not be penalized for what amounts to a bureaucratic failure in oversight.

Congress, or the Pentagon need to make this right, and they need to do it immediately.

Sign our petition calling for immediate Congressional action, or action from the Defense Department, to use its authority to waive repayment of enlistment or re-enlisted bonuses they accepted in good faith ten years ago.

The stories are heartbreaking:

“It’s gut-wrenching because you have to figure out what you’re going to do and how you’re going to survive. We were paying upward $1,300 a month back to that recoupment. We weren’t able to afford everything — food for the kids, a day care.” – Christopher Van Meter, Iraq War Veteran and Purple Heart recipient

Congress, or the Department of Defense, must take action immediately to make things right for Christopher, and thousands of veterans like him, who are being forced into an impossible situation because of mistakes they did not make.

We’re hopeful that there will be resolution on this issue, quickly, and we know that outcome is more likely if we all make our voices heard today.

Sign our petition calling for immediate Congressional action, or action from the Defense Department, to use its authority to waive repayment of enlistment or re-enlisted bonuses they accepted in good faith ten years ago.

I have worked in financial management at the base level and at the Pentagon. In my view, there is no more important task an agency has than to alleviate any issues related to the undue financial burden placed on these veterans and their families.

The US has been giving money to Israel since 1951, and of course nobody is presently demanding that any of that be repaid. The year 1979 was an especially watershed year–with $3 billion in US tax dollars being paid out. According to the Jewish Virtual Library, a “second special package” was approved in 1985 due to a “severe economic crisis in Israel,” this consisting of two disbursements, totaling $1.5 billion, handed out in 1985 and ’86. (1)

Economic aid, however, has gradually been phased out over the past 2o years and replaced by increases in military aid. In 2007, the Bush administration approved a 10-year, $30 billion package for military expenses, and most recently the Obama administration approved a $38 billion package that will start in 2019 and cover Israel through 2029. The present rate of flow of US tax dollars to Israel is approximately $10.2 million per day. (2)

Aid to the Jewish state is of course vigorously pushed by the pro-Israel lobby in Washington. And the lobby, as many of us are aware, doesn’t just clamor for aid; it also promotes wars.

It’s interesting that many military veterans now being called upon to repay their signing bonuses are veterans of the Iraq war. In the following video, dating from 2002, you’ll see none other than Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu making a case for military action against Iraq, urging the US to wage “preemptive war”–he actually uses that term, not once but repeatedly–and in the process claiming, falsely, that Saddam Hussein had chemical and biological weapons and was on the verge of acquiring nuclear weapons. Basically, he plays Congress like a violin. As you watch his performance, a performance that seems almost choreographed, consider what we now know about 9/11, the overwhelming evidence of controlled demolition, and of how the fall of Saddam Hussein led to the rise of ISIS.

It’s interesting to note what was going on in 2002 when Netanyahu made that appearance before Congress. This was two years after the start of the second Intifada, and Saddam Hussein had begun paying out sums of money, in some cases $25,000, to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers. That’s a fact of history, though not a well-known one. And while Saddam Hussein posed no threat to the US, quite obviously Israel had plenty of reason for wanting him overthrown. And so Netanyahu made his pitch before Congress. And neocon pundits in the media began fanning the flames of war. Weapons of mass destruction! Mushroom clouds! Smoking guns! Yellowcake uranium from Niger! And off we went to war!!

A war essentially for Israel.

By 2005 we were caught in a quagmire with no end in sight, and the Pentagon, having trouble meeting enlistment quotas, began sweetening the pot with signing bonuses. Between 2000 and 2008, the money spent on enlistment bonuses rose from $891 million to $1.4 billion. The following is an article from CBS News published back in 2007. You might find it interesting.

Twenty-nine-year-old Joan Marte thinks now is the right time to join the army.

“I get to travel, basic training sounds like fun,” he says.

Yemin Ko, 24, who describes himself as a patriot, is also signing up.

“I wanted to do something important,” he says.

The Army needs them both to meet its enlistment goals for this year.

It surpassed its July recruitment targets by more than 200 new soldiers, CBS News correspondent Michelle Miller reports, by adding recruiters — and with an unprecedented incentive: $20,000 signing bonus given to soldiers willing to ship out to basic training within a month.

“The intent of the bonus is to get folks to ship quickly so they can attend basic training and we can meet the end strength the army is required to have,” says Lt. Col. Joseph Feliciano.

In New York, recruitment commanders say they’re already seeing better numbers this month since the signing bonuses were put on the table. And the army hopes to pump up those numbers by September 30th, the end of the fiscal year.

“Is this what we really want? To bribe people to get them to go and fight an unpopular war?” says Larry Korb, who served as assistant secretary of defense in the Reagan Administration. Korb, who is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, says the new policy will be bad for the army.

“They’ve already lowered the standards. Last year, when they did meet their recruiting goals, they had lowered the educational and aptitude standards,” says Korb.

Under the new deal, recruits could be serving in a combat zone within four months.

“That’s a risk I’m willing to take, and I’m proud of it,” says Ko.

Yemin Ko says he’ll be ready to serve, and at a time when every bodycounts, the Army is banking on the same thing. (3)

That was in 2007. Now here we are nine years later, and veterans are being told to repay the money they were paid. One such veteran is Susan Haley, who got sent to Afghanistan in 2008 and is now trying to repay the bonus she received. She presently sends the Pentagon $650 per month–a quarter of her family’s income.

“I feel totally betrayed,” Haley told the L.A. Times. “They’ll get their money, but I want those years back.”

Haley, 47, spent 26 years in the Army along with her husband and oldest son, a medic who lost his leg in Afghanistan.

There is a lot of outrage felt in America now toward our own government, and certainly a lot of it is justified. But maybe Americans, particularly those whose passions have been aroused over the treatment of veterans, should start considering the enormous influence exerted by the Israeli lobby in Washington, along with the possibility that the anger they’re now reserving for their own government is, at least in part, misdirected.

EDITORIAL DISCLOSUREAll content herein is owned by author exclusively. Expressed opinions are NOT necessarily the views of VT, authors, affiliates, advertisers, sponsors, partners, technicians or Veterans Today Network (VT). Some content may be satirical in nature. All images within are full responsibility of author and NOT VT.About VT - Read Full Policy Notice - Comment Policy

{p}Richard Edmondson is an author, novelist, poet, and journalist whose writings often focus on Middle East issues, the Zionist lobby, and religion. His latest novel is The Memoirs of Saint John: When the Sandstone Crumbles, a story about an archaeological team doing a dig in Syria and set amidst the current conflict in the country. {/p}
{p}In 2014 Richard attended an International Conference on Combating Terrorism and Religious Extremism, held in Damascus. The book is part two in the Memoirs of Saint John series.{/p}
{p}Two other books by Richard are Rising Up: Class Warfare in America from the Streets to the Airwaves, relating his experiences founding and operating an unlicensed or "pirate" FM radio station in San Francisco in the 1990s, as well as a volume of poetry entitled American Bus Stop: Essay and Poems on Hope and Homelessness.{/p}
{p}Richard is cognizant of the words of the early Christian writer Tertullian, who in the second century-basically prognosticating the fall of the Roman Empire-wrote: "We have made merry amid the ludicrous cruelties of the noonday exhibition."{/p}

6 COMMENTS

“Supposedly the bonuses never should have been paid out in the first place, and the decision to do so was a result of oversight, fraud, and mismanagement.” In the Pentagram? Say it isn’t so. I wonder how those out there in propaganda land that so love the military and their mercenary ways feel about their favorite entity after hearing about this? This is about the lowest thing anyone could imagine to do to those who have suffered immensely from the reality of war. The Pentagram has ‘lost’ 100+ times the amount through graft and corruption and nothing was ever done to recoop that. But the poor sucker that thought that signing a piece of paper legally required the Pentagram to show good faith in it’s dealings? They now find it to be nothing more than another scam to get them to lose their lives, suffer permanent injury or psychological problems for the rest of their lives for the privilege of becoming indentured servants. I bet they hired an insurance company rat to write the agreements, knowing full well that these people would be screwed later. There’s no end to the depravity of this scum.

Just another reason why no parent should allow their children to enlist in the military. There is nothing positive to be gained by doing so. The lies and false promises made by unscrupulous recruiters to get some poor ignorant kid to sign on the dotted line and possibly ruin his life and make him or her accessory to the murder of innocent human beings is indefensible. To add insult to injury and in this case to add additional financial hardship to those who are already in financial straits is the last straw.
We need to create a national campaign, a national movement to persuade young people to stay away from the military.
There are enough bad reasons to do so.

To make matters worse is the near religious hysteria about the military and a worship of ‘Our troops”. You see it before football games, before NASCAR races, in nearly every sporting event there is the display of military presence and as we have come to learn the military is paying these sports franchises to be allowed to put on these spectacles to entice young people to ‘join up.” There are special announcements in churches and even on the plane you board.
This goes along with the militarization of the police and the road to fascism.

Enlisting into the military is not like taking a new job. You give up your individuality as well as your humanity. You become brainwashed into thinking everyone is your enemy. You are in effect a robot for the empire, trained to murder,maim and destroy
When they are through with you, they toss you into the dumpster and ignore what they have done to you. You are no longer any of their concern. They ( the owners) got what they wanted out of you and if you manage to survive, they could care less if you are sick, homeless or disabled. They don’t care, They don’t care.
America’s military is for one purpose and one purpose only: aggression and the American people are being brainwashed into a religious fervor over the military.
I don’t support the troops and I don’t fall for the lies.

Like most salesmen, recruiters lie to green behind the ears recruits. They do not tell them all the gory details of war or the many chemicals and radiation and nuclear hazards these mercenaries face. This stopped being “patriotic” long ago. Young kids who can’t get jobs and can’t afford or reach the levels of college, get sucked into this scam by the Pentagon and government lies. All the recruiters who were part of this scam should be forced to pay for it along with the four star generals on lavish pensions who dismally failed to defend the country and obviously traitorously stood down on 9/11. Let Congress pay for it too along with Obama. All of them likely have millions or more stashed in secret bank accounts all of the world as payment and bribes for their “services rendered” as the whores and prostitutes they are, all of them as Ken O’keefe stated from LAX about 9 months ago. Do not join our military for any reason whatsoever. It is not worth it. You will be aiding and abetting the enemy which is our own outlaw corrupt government run by Obama and Hillary and about to be run by Hillary and Slick killing millions of innocent people all over this planet in our good names.